Cookies topped with sparkling sugar on left, granulated sugar on right. This cookie is almost as satisfying as the vanilla scent that fills the kitchen while baking. Similar to the Christmas Butter Cookies, egg yolks contribute to their light, crumbly texture. The name is a reference to the long thin device that guides yarn back and forth across the warp in weaving (or a device on a sewing machine). But these cookies look nothing like their name. Frankly, I would not expect anyone to take one look at these cookies and say, "I know - a weaving shuttle." Not happening. Butter, eggs and vanilla await kneading into dry flour, sugar and salt mixture. I wonder if the recipe or cookie shape goes back to an era of early weavers, or if this was a 1950's invention for the magazine. The Cookie Book calls them "cigar-shaped," not an image I'd evoke to sell a cookie. The making is easy. After rolling bits of dough into, shall we say, a small slug shape (I ...
I began this blog when my mother was ill and needed enough of my attention that I could not concentrate on longer-form works I wanted to write. I set those aside to distract myself with cookie-making and this blog. Please find my new blog (2020) entitled "Time NOT Lost" at karenbrattesani.blogspot.com, where I explore the behavior I see around me -- both my own and that of others -- and what it says about our changing culture during the coronavirus pandemic. And, I hope, beyond.